Everyone who lives or has travelled in Hong Kong knows first-hand just how easy it is to get around our city. We’ve got a fantastic public transport system consisting of affordable buses, minibuses, taxis, historic trams, ferries with a famous view, and one of the world’s best underground railway systems. Honestly, it’s pretty easy to get around with your feet barely touching the ground, so we’re lucky that Hong Kong has also recently been ranked the 10th most walkable city in the world.
Time Out has globally surveyed 18,500 people from over 50 countries on how easy it is to get around their cities on foot, and compiled a list of 20 cities that have the highest proportion of ‘good’ and ‘amazing’ votes for walkability. With 82 percent of citizens rating us highly for ease of walking, Hong Kong has been ranked smack bang in the middle of the list at 10th place, tied with Cardiff, Shanghai, and Paris. We are also the most walkable East Asian city on the list (along with Shanghai), followed by Singapore coming in at 16th place.
You might assume another locale like Tokyo would be better to walk around in, but think about it. Hong Kong is a compact city with great infrastructure, traffic coordination, and (mostly) well-paved roads throughout our urban areas. The majority of Hong Kong Island’s urban sprawl is clustered along its northern edge, and our harbourfront is built so that you can pretty much walk from the western-most neighbourhood of Kennedy Town all the way to Sai Wan Ho in the east. Across the water in Kowloon, the terrain is mostly flat and more of the city is arranged in grid-like blocks for ease of navigation. Hong Kong is also home to plenty of hiking trails bringing people deep into our natural landscape – while still being accessible from the urban areas. Everyone needs shoes made for walking here.
As for the world’s most walkable city? Abu Dhabi has been given the honour, which makes sense since the UAE capital is mostly flat with plenty of pedestrianised areas downtown. Boston comes in second place – its major sights are pretty close to each other, and their Freedom Trail is actually a walk that connects 16 significant landmarks. The coastal city of Brighton rounds up the top three. Despite its hilly terrain, Brighton’s top attractions are mostly grouped along the seafront, as are a good number of their best restaurants and bars. See the full list of walkable cities below.
The world’s 20 most walkable cities:
1. Abu Dhabi, UAE, 91 percent
2. Boston, US, 89 percent
3. Brighton, UK, 88 percent
4. New York, US, 87 percent
5. Bilbao, Spain, 86 percent
= Chicago, US, 86 percent
7. Edinburgh, UK, 85 percent
= Marrakech, Morocco, 85 percent
9. San Francisco, US, 83 percent
10. Cardiff, UK, 82 percent
= Shanghai, China, 82 percent
= Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 82 percent
= Paris, France, 82 percent
14. Oslo, Norway, 81 percent
= Stockholm, Sweden, 81 percent
16. Singapore, Singapore, 80 percent
= Melbourne, Australia, 80 percent
18. London, UK, 79 percent
= Lyon, France, 79 percent
= Washington DC, US, 79 percent
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